Over 250 international brands pledge to end all plastic waste

Major companies including Coca Cola, H&M and L'Oreal have pledged to end plastic waste by 2025. More than 250 firms have promised that 100% of their plastic packaging will be reused, recycled or composted.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is behind the campaign, if current trends continue, the amount of plastic in the seas could outweigh fish by 2050.

The foundation was set up in 2010 by record-breaking British yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur to improve environmental standards. The level of plastic pollution she observed on her round the world sailings shocked MacArthur.

Since the 1950s, an estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste has been produced – with 60% of it ending up in landfills or the natural environment. Although packaging is not the sole source of the plastic problem, it does represent the biggest use of plastic.

Environmental campaigning community Friends of Earth has welcomed the move. Julian Kirby, a Friends of Earth plastic campaigner, said, “It's encouraging that more firms and governments are listening to public demands to curb plastic waste and are pledging to act. A global movement on this issue is urgently needed."

Signatories to the pledge – which also includes global powerhouse companies such as Burberry and Mars, as well as governments and non-governmental organisations – have committed to:

• Eliminate "problematic or unnecessary" plastic packaging and move from single-use to reusable packaging by 2025
• Ensure all plastic packaging can be "easily and safely" recycled or composted
• Increase the amounts of plastics reused or recycled into new packaging or products

According to the BBC, signatory and Marmite-maker Unilever recycles around two thirds of its plastic and has been cutting down on its plastic waste for some time. Earlier this year the company stopped sealing its pyramid-shaped PG Tip teabags with polypropylene, using corn starch as a biodegradable alternative.

Unilever brands such as Hellmann’s are also looking into ways of reusing recycled plastic to make its packaging. As it stands, Hellmann’s packaging can be recycled but is not made from recycled plastic itself.

According to the BBC, David Blanchard, the chief R&D officer at Unilever, said, “The aim is to move towards a circular approach, where you are only using recycled content and you work toward eliminating single-use packaging.

"We are seeing consumers wanting fully recyclable solutions. In the next few years people who use our products will be looking for packs that are recyclable or use recycled content, and we will be telling them on the packaging when that's the case."

MacArthur said the pledge offered a “clear vision for what we need to create a circular economy for plastic".

As part of the pledge, signatories have agreed to publish annual updates on their progress, with targets becoming "increasingly ambitious" over the coming years.

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